• Russia says airliner downed by a bomb


    A somber President Vladimir Putin vowed to hunt down and punish those responsible for a bomb that brought down a Russian passenger jet last month, “wherever they are hiding.” Intensified Russian airstrikes Tuesday hit the Islamic State group’s stronghold in Syria that also is being pounded by the French military. Russia’s FSB security service confirmed for the first time that a homemade bomb caused the Oct. 31 crash of the Metrojet Airbus 321-200 in Egypt’s Sinai Desert and killed all 224 people aboard in what it called “a terrorist act.” The Islamic state had already claimed responsibility, saying it was punishing Moscow for its air campaign in Syria. – Chicago Tribune

  • Anonymous declares war on ISIS


    The hacker collective Anonymous released a video message on YouTube Sunday declaring war on the Islamic State in the wake of Friday’s bloody terror attacks in Paris. The video, posted in French, announces the beginning of #OpParis, a coordinated campaign to neutralize ISIS’s social media channels. – Maxim

  • New South Wales Police are being trained to shoot terrorists on sight

    New South Wales Police are being trained to shoot terrorists on sight rather than try to contain them and negotiate, in a change of policy prompted by recent attacks. Acting Police Commissioner Nick Kaldas said the new approach was needed in the terrorist environment where “you’re dealing with someone who is there with a preconceived aim of dying and who wants to kill as many people as they possibly can”. – ABC

  • France may enact article 5 of the NATO charter

    To confront comprehensively the Islamic State terrorist attacks on French soil, there have been calls for France’s President François Hollande to invoke Article 5 of the NATO Treaty, which ensures mutual defense for its members, but neither Hollande nor the military alliance has activated the provision. The lack of a declaration of war from Hollande and NATO is a window into the courtyard of the EU’s gingerly foreign policy posture. – The Jerusalem Post

  • Obama rules out sending large numbers of ground troops in Syria


    Describing the Islamic State as “the face of evil,” President Obama said Monday he will continue working with other countries on a coordinated strategy to “degrade and ultimately destroy” the militant group — without U.S. combat troops. “We have the right strategy and we’re going to see it through,” Obama said after a Group of 20 nations summit that focused on counter-terrorism in the wake of last week’s attacks in Paris. – USA Today

[Feat image: Russian President Vladimir Putin at a meeting about October’s Russian plane crash in Egypt. Moscow, Nov. 17, 2015. Reuters]